I have been experimenting with my fancy-pants camera for over two years now, and really haven’t made great strides with my picture-taking ability.  That is until a few days a go, when an article I read on  getting sharp photos finally “clicked.”  

Yes, a picture of a rock, but look at the detail!  And how the foreground and background are blurred but the focus of the photo is clear and defined.

Same with this photo of my Little Miss getting off the trampoline.  Sharp subject and blurred background.

Once I figured out how to make this happen (Set aperture at lowest number possible, decrease ISO to 100 or 200, adjust shutter speed accordingly to balance out the exposure) I was able to take photos that I am honestly a little proud of!

Here’s my girl feeding our chickens.  She loves those birds and runs to sprinkle their feed out every morning.

Here’s the chickens enjoying their breakfast.  I don’t know if they love Henley as much as she loves them, but they are nice to her and put on a good show.

After feeding the chickens we went and raked leaves and threw them in the air.  Henley was convinced she had something in her boot.  She kept saying “Mom, ‘mere! Something in my boot!”  So I took a picture before helping her shake it out.

Okay I took two pictures before helping her shake it out.

To wrap up the day, I got a close-up of her scrunched face.  This is the face I get any time I ask her to smile for the camera.

She just can’t help it!

I love my camera!  What’s more, I love that I am finally learning how to use my nice camera to actually take nice pictures!